Baked Pasta with Pumpkin, Roasted Veggies, & Chicken

by Courtney on September 25, 2010

So how’s everybody’s Saturday going??

My Saturday turned out to be pretty fantastic, despite a less-than-stellar turnout for our garage sale today. Even though we only ended up making $15.00 (a full $100 LESS than yesterday!), we still have a way to get rid of almost ALL of our leftovers, thanks to Jay’s mom. Thank GOODNESS…and good riddance!!

After closing up shop at the sale, I decided to pop in our wedding video and watch that. I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while now, and boy I’ll tell ya…that video gets me every time. This resulted in a good hour and a half of my afternoon with me simultaneously laughing and balling my eyes out. Happy tears of course!

After an unexpected afternoon nap (which I hardly ever do, but think I need to try it more often) it was time to start making some dinner.

And let me tell you…tonight’s dinner was, in one word: epic.

While getting things prepped in the kitchen, I sipped on a fab glass of vino. In my opinion, it’s the best way to cook.

And apparently, it also helps in the creation of one phenomenal meal…

Had I anticipated this becoming such a great concoction, I probably would have taken some photos of my prep, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Here’s how things went down…

-Earlier in the day, I roasted up a big batch of veggies under the assumption they would probably be used tonight. I just wasn’t sure how.

-Then, I realized we had a big pack of chicken breasts in the fridge that needed to be separated and frozen, so I figured that I would incorporate some of that too.

-Then a commercial for Olive Garden came on television, and a huge hankering for pasta came swarming over me…

-aaaaand the rest is history.

I think one of my favorite parts about this meal is that it was created entirely without a recipe. I was a free woman in the kitchen, and I LOVED IT. I wish I had that confidence all the time!

And do you want to know the best part of this meal?? It even incorporated my current food obsession: pumpkin!!

(Jay still doesn’t know there was pumpkin in the recipe…mwaaahahaha!)

Check out the stringy cheese…mmmmm.

I really didn’t do too much measuring of anything, but I have a pretty good idea; so without further ado, let me share with you my fabulous creation for…

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta al dente, drain & set aside. Heat olive oil in a pan. Saute chicken pieces a few minutes & then add onion & garlic. Cook for a few minutes until almost cooked through.

In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the roasted vegetables, cooked chicken mixture, marinara sauce, pumpkin, cheeses, peas, dried basil, salt, pepper. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix, until all the pasta is coated with the sauce and the ingredients are combined.

Pour the pasta into an11x7 inch pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Top with a light sprinkling of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Bake until top is golden and cheese melts, about 25 minutes.

I served our baked pasta dish with some simple mixed greens, drizzled with a little Ken’s Light Balsamic Vinaigrette. It turned out to be the perfect accompaniment!

And better yet, my “wing-it” portions ended up leaving us with tons of leftovers…which is A-OK with me!

Jay and I are planning on spending the rest of our evening low-key, on the couch, catching up with our DVR, and enjoying a little dessert that came our way today…

Jay’s parents took a trip out to Vermont today, and on their way back, stopped by to drop off some goodies they picked up for us. Jay got a box of his favorites, chocolate-covered cherries, while I got an assortment of various caramel-filled chocolates. Ummm, could it get any better???

Actually, it did…when I realized there was a whole bottom layer in the box.

I had a chicken pumpkin pasta dish as well for dinner. We went to the Old Bryan Inn in Saratoga and I ordered the Chicken and Pumpkin Walnut Sauté. It was grilled chicken with broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms in a light sherry sauce over pumpkin and walnut ravioli! I highly recommend it if you are up that way!

Love pumpkin in savory dishes! I came up with a Baked Ziti w/ Pumpkin & Chicken Sausage recipe using evaporated milk/pumpkin to make a “cream” sauce last year that was so good! That reminds me, I should totally make that again

I use pumpkin to make cake mixes. Mix the cake mix and pumpkin (NO Other ingredients) together until the mix is completely dissolved in the mix. Bake. You would NEVER know it wasnt made the “normal” way. Of course, if you use vanilla, or some other light colored mix, then it looks orange.

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Welcome to Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life! I'm Courtney, a 30-year old wife, new mama to Lucas, NASM certified personal trainer, and newbie to the corporate world living in Upstate, NY. To find out a little bit more about the girl behind the blog, check out my My Story page!